Thursday, April 14, 2011

E-Books are a big deal now; there’s more of them all the time. It’s not a trend that shows any sign of going away soon. According to Forrester Research, sales of e-books will triple by 2015 to close to $3 billion. That’s a lot of trees that won’t need to die.

In a world where an increasing number of books are electronic, there’s a new challenge: what happens to the long-beloved author signing? In a world of Kindles, Nooks, Kobos and Diesels, is there still room for an author to leave a personal mark on a fan’s reading material? St. Petersberg, Florida, author and inventor, T.J. Waters, says “yes.” What’s more, he’s already done something about it. It’s called Autography and the industry will see it next month in New York at BookExpo America. From the New York Times:

Here’s how an Autography eBook “signing” will work: a reader poses with the author for a photograph, which can be taken with an iPad camera or an external camera. The image immediately appears on the author’s iPad (if it’s shot with an external camera, it’s sent to the iPad via Bluetooth). Then the author uses a stylus to scrawl a digital message below the photo. When finished, the author taps a button on the iPad that sends the fan an e-mail with a link to the image, which can then be downloaded into the eBook.

Wait time? About two and a half minutes. Bragging potential? Endless: Readers can post the personalized photo to their Facebook and Twitter accounts.